In 1967, Peter Huchthausen, a river patrol officer on Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta, rescued a badly wounded Vietnamese child, Nguyen Thi Lung. He arranged for the girl’s treatment and education, only to lose track of her when her town was overrun by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive.

After the war, Lung led a difficult and shadowy life under the communist regime, until she managed to get the attention of a reporter. The reporter published her story and then assisted her departure from Vietnam, while Huchthausen sponsored her entry into the United States.

In alternating chapters, Huchthausen and Lung recall the experience of war on the Mekong River, and Lung relates the terrifying years that followed. Echoes of the Mekong casts a fresh light on the American involvement in Vietnam as it follows two people caught in the war from youth to maturity.